Russian priest who said women should have more children to stop being afraid of sending them to war killed in Ukraine

Archpriest Mikhail Vasilyev, senior priest of a church in the Moscow region, was killed in the war in Ukraine. This church is located within the compound of the main garrison of the Strategic Missile Forces near Moscow.

A message on the Russian Orthodox Church website says that Vasilyev died “on the morning of November 6, 2022, within the zone of the special military operation in Ukraine while performing pastoral duties.”

Vasilyev was a regular guest on Priestly Answer, a show that airs on the Moscow Patriarchate-owned TV channel Spas TV. During one of the recent broadcasts, the host asked him if he could understand a woman who took her only son to the Canary Islands to save him from mobilization.

In response, Vasilyev said: “I understand perfectly well that every lady by nature has been allowed by God to give birth to multiple children in most cases. If a lady, fulfilling the commandment of God to “be fruitful and multiply,” renounced the artificial means of termination of pregnancy in the broadest spectrum, then obviously she would have more than one child, in most cases. And so, it wouldn't be so painful and scary for her to part with him, even if only for a while.”